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Agricultural News Food and Agriculture in Twenty-five Years According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, t

admin2010-10-14  41
问题                        Agricultural News
Food and Agriculture in Twenty-five Years
    According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, there is enough food to feed everyone in the world, if the food were given out evenly. But, it is not. As a result, more than 700 million people in developing countries do not get enough food to eat.
    IFPRI officials say that in the next 25 years the world population will increase by about 100 million people each year. They say that unless something is done soon, the situation will become much more serious.
    There are different opinions about the problem of feeding the growing population. Some experts say an intense use of chemicals and the loss of soil from wind and rain have damaged some farmland beyond repair. Other experts believe that recent discoveries in bio-technology will help increase production. They say farm land has not been damaged as much as some people have reported.
    In an effort to better understand the problem and ways to solve it, IFPRI has developed a three-part international program. Part one began in 1994. It continued through June of 1995. It involved research a bout the world food situation, poverty and the environment. The research results are being published and sent to experts for their comments.
    The second part involves an international conference to discuss way to meet the world’ s food needs by the year 2200 and beyond. Government officials from developed and developing countries, experts on agriculture and environment, and leaders of international organizations will attend. IFPRI officials hope the conference to be held in Washington DC will lead to a program of action that both sides can agree to support.
    Part three of the program will inform people about results of the conference and plans developed to deal with the situation. That effort began in June of 1995 and continue through 1996. The International Food Policy Research Institute says steps must be taken before a worldwide shortage of food develops and all natural resources are destroyed.
New Super Rice
    Scientists with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines have developed what they call a super rice. They say it could increase world production of rice by as much as 25 percent.
    Last year, farmers are expected to produce about 350 million tons of rice. But more rice than that will be eaten. The extra rice will come from supplies saved during years when production was greater than demand.
    Today, there are about 4.5 billion people in the world. But the World Bank says that in 30 years there will be more than eight billion. The huge increase in population will greatly increase the demand for rice.
    Researchers say the new rice could produce 100 million tons more of rice each year. That amount could feed almost 500 million people.
    More rice plants grown today have about 25 stems on each plant. Only about 15 of these stems pro duce flowers. The flowers produce the rice. Each flower usually contains about 100 grains of rice.
    The researchers used computers to design a new plant. They decided that to produce more rice they needed to reduce the number of stems on each plant. Then more of the plant’ s energy would go to producing grains of rice. So they mixed existing rice plants until they grew a plant that looked like their design.
    The new rice contains only eight stems. But each stem contains a flower. And each flower produced as many as 250 grains of rice.
    Lester Brown, president of World watch Institute, says the demand for rice in Asia will be two times greater 35 years from now. But as the population increases, less land will be available for growing rice. He says this is why the announcement of the new more productive rice is so exciting.
    Researchers plan to begin to test the new rice in different growing conditions. They first will add genes that will give the new plant some natural defense against diseases and insects.
Amaranth, a Promising Food Crop
    Agriculturists believe amaranth is the most promising cereal crop to come along in recent years. Am aranth is a plant whose name comes from a Greek word meaning "unfading". Some agriculturists believe the plant can be grown commercially in many environments to help feed a hungry world.
    It is not a new idea to grow amaranth as a foodstuff. In Mexico during the sixteenth century, the Aztecs cultivated it. The plant was an important part of their diet. It has been shown .that the Aztecs harvested close to 6 000 metric tons of the grain each year. However, when Cortes and his Spanish army invaded Mexico, they destroyed the crop completely. Today only a few wild and uncultivated kinds of amaranth exist, and it is rarely used as a food in Mexico.
    It has been discovered that amaranth is a highly nutritious food. The plant’ s seed is high in protein, and it contains an important amino acid called lysine. Amino acids are organic compounds that are the buildings blocks of protein. Lysine is an essential amino acid that is missing in wheat, rice, and corn. The leaves of some varieties compare in taste and nutritional value with spinach and other vegetable greens.
    Amaranth can be ground into flour and made into baked goods. Bread made from amaranth flour is heavy and very compact when compared with the light and airy bread common in North America. The flour can also be used for cakes, cookies, and crackers, as well as high-protein breakfast cereals and snack foods.
    It is true that breeding a wild plant into a major food crop such as wheat requires much research time. Agriculturists know that it has taken hundreds of years of breeding different varieties of corn to get the kinds we have today. Presently there are several problems in growing amaranth as a crop. Because it is a wild plant, it is hard to predict the date when the crop will be ready to be harvested. It is also impossible to know the expected height of the individual plants or the yield of a given amount of seeds. It is important for economic reasons to breed a plant of uniform height and one that can be harvested at a specific time each year.
    Plant researchers are now working on developing new hybrids. A hybrid is an offspring resulting from the crossing of different parent plants. The hybrid is more vigorous, or stronger, than either parent. Re searchers want to develop a hybrid that resists to disease and insect pests and at the same time provides a high yield of grain. The hybrid must also be adaptable to a wide range of environmental conditions. A hybrid that matures in three months or less would make it possible to grow amaranth in cold areas with short growing seasons.
    Some farm experts feel that selling the amaranth grain commercially may not be easy. Wheat is still the major crop demanded by most countries. Many questions arise about the feasibility of amaranth cultivation. How much will it cost to grow and harvest amaranth? Does the crop require special machinery to harvest it? Will a new grain be acceptable to people who are accustomed to consuming other grains? It will be some time before we have answers to all these questions.
    Amaranth may be the kind of high-protein grain that poorer countries need to feed people who go hungry every day. Amaranth is a hardy plant that grows in poor areas which are unable to support other crops. It may be that in countries that are short of an adequate food supply, amaranth is the foodstuff of the future.
Breeding a wild plant into a major food crop requires ________.
选项
答案much research time
解析 由原文“Amaranth，a Promising Food crop”部分第五段的开头“It is true that breeding a wild plant into a major food crop such as wheat requires much research time．”可知正确答案。
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